[OB] Aesudan

[Quiver he/him]

This is one of the big questions I'm left with as of Oathbringer: is Aesudan still alive?

If you wish for the promised power, ingest that - then try to control the one who follows. But be warned, the queen at Kholinar tried this, and the power consumed her"

This wording is vague enough, and Aesudan's situation not gone into depth, that I'm a little confused by how thigns stand at the end of the book. When Odium say's she's been consumed by it, does that mean she's dead, and the power Amaram is channeling is literally the same one she was using?

Has she been consumed in a metaphysical sense, in that her personality was warped by the power (maybe supported by the feasting, the executions, and the fact that Elhokar is pretty adamant that she isn't acting the way she normally would) enough that she no longer "counts" as herself?

Or has Aesudan been consumed in a literal way, that she's no longer Aesudan, but rather something like the Fused, a human body inhabited by an older spirit? 

The fact that she isn't mentioned after the occupation of Kholinar by the Parshendi leaves me with a lot of questions on that front.

[The Invested Beard]

I think she's a goner. Even if she's not dead, she's gotta be some kind of husk of a human.

[digitalbusker he/him]

We're pretty sure the stone Amaram swallowed is the same one Aesudan had, right? So at minimum she had to pass it somehow.

[The Invested Beard]

2 minutes ago, Ookla the Busker said:

We're pretty sure the stone Amaram swallowed is the same one Aesudan had, right? So at minimum she had to pass it somehow.

Thanks for that mental image.

[Quiver he/him]

1 hour ago, Ookla the Busker said:

We're pretty sure the stone Amaram swallowed is the same one Aesudan had, right? So at minimum she had to pass it somehow.

That's part of what led me to this question - is it the same stone? Or is it just another smokestone. If Odium speaking literally, or metaphorically?

(Bare in mind, until WoR was released, I thought 'the Thrill' was just the Alethi term for and conception of adrenaline. I am very, very bad at picking up Brandon's authorial intent)

[kenod]

21 minutes ago, Quiver said:

That's part of what led me to this question - is it the same stone? Or is it just another smokestone. If Odium speaking literally, or metaphorically?

(Bare in mind, until WoR was released, I thought 'the Thrill' was just the Alethi term for and conception of adrenaline. I am very, very bad at picking up Brandon's authorial intent)

I personally have the feeling any gemstone would work, since my idea is that it would work as an impromptu gemheart, with the gem becoming part of whoever swallows it, and allowing for connections with spren, with in this case the Unmade being the one who creates the connection.

P.S.
Dalinar mentioned people in Urithiru trying to swallow gemstones in order to become surgebinders. Does Odium now have a bunch of sleeper agents in Urithiru?

[Llarimar he/him]

I don't think that Aesudan is alive, because she hasn't been treated like an important character so far and I don't see that changing in the future.  It seems like Aesudan should be important, being the Queen of Kholinar and Elhokar's wife (and Jasnah's sister-in-law and a ton of other important relationships), but she doesn't even appear until book 3, at which point she is barely relevant to the plot.  I was also confused by the ambiguity when Odium says that "she has been consumed," but I think it most likely that Aesudan is dead.  Bringing her back into the story at this point would seem anticlimactic and derivative.  

The only possible plot thread I see for Aesudan moving forward relates to the fact that Jasnah tried to have her assassinated.  We know very little about Jasnah's motivation for wanting to assassinate her sister-in-law, and as far as Jasnah's character development I feel like it might important.  I could see Aesudan returning to the story in some way related to Jasnah, or at least being mentioned between Jasnah and Ivory, or something like that.  

If Aesudan is alive, she might try to challenge Jasnah for the throne.  That could create a very interesting character dynamic, and might rekindle Jasnah's drive to have her assassinated. 

Edited December 14, 2017 by Llarimar

[shawnhargreaves he/him]

"consumed" is an odd word to use in that context.  Therefore, something odd is going on.  I think we'll see "her" again in some form, but likely not as the same Aesudan that eg. Jasnah would necessarily recognize.

[Aleph-Naught he/him]

What happened with Aesudan/Yelig-nar (or rather the complete lack of what happened) was probably the most jarring/aggravating thing about Oathbringer for me. After bonding with Yelig-nar it seems like she's going to be some new big-bad but then it's just completely brushed away in part five.

I imagine the gap there is ripe for/intended to be the subject of a future novella but it is my exhibit A in the argument that Oathbringer needed a bit more editing.

[Leuthie]

Consume was used in the context of control. "Here's power. If you can't control it it will consume you like it did Aesudan."

Other words B.S. could have used would be overwhelm, overwrite, subsume, usurp, etc.  She's dead in the same way that a Parshmen who agrees to become Fused is dead.  Their body, mind and soul are taken over by another. In this case, Yelig-nar